Banvit Bandirma improved its chances to reach the Eurocup Last 32 in Group G by downing Maccabi Haifa Bazan 95-76 at home on Wednesday. Banvit improved to 5-4 and will reach the Last 16 if it beats VEF Riga in the Latvian capital next week, regardless of other scores. Banvit will be second if it wins and Kalev Cramo Tallinn beats Haifa. It will third if it wins or loses in Riga by up to 19 points and Haifa wins. Haifa dropped to 6-3. It will be second if it wins and third if it loses and Banvit wins. Chuck Davis paced the winners with 20 points. Sammy Mejia added 19, Cehver Ozer had 13, Klemen Prepelic got 12 while Ermal Kuqo contributed 10 in an easy win for Banvit. Ike Ofoegbu led Haifa with 17 points. Donta Smith and Dagan Yivzori each added 14 while David Cubillan had 10 for the guests.

A three-pointer by Yivzori gave Haifa its only lead, 4-5. E.J. Rowland and Kuqo stepped up for Banvit and a three-point play by Davis soon gave the hosts a 13-8 lead. Davis kept pacing Banvit but Cubillan struck from downtown to keep Haifa within 17-14. Dusan Cantekin and an unstoppable Banvit boosted the hosts' lead to 25-19 after 10 minutes. Davis got help from Mejia to make it a double-digit game, 32-21, early in the second quarter. Ben Reis and Smith tried to change things for the guests but a triple by Ozer and a layup-plus-foul by Prepelic broke the game open, 45-30. Prepelic and Davis kept Banvit way ahead, 52-37, at halftime. Banvit found a go-to guy in Mejia, who had 7 points in a 9-0 run that gave the hosts a 61-37 margin. Cubillan and Yivzori tried to change things for Haifa but a layup by Stefan Markovic made it a 27-point game, 71-44, enough for Banvit to get a 79-51 margin after 30 minutes. Nothing changed from that moment, as Banvit kept a safe lead all the way until the final buzzer.

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

Banvit Bandirma

"I want to congratulate all of my players. We played very seriously. We knew the importance of this game for us. Therefore we started the game and continued with the same motivation and same concentration almost for most parts of the game. We played against good team that plays serious basketball as an organization with leadership and coaching. They missed some important players today and of course we tried to take advantage of that by playing aggressively from the very first moment to take out the their key players. I think we managed. We dominated the game from the very beginning. But we know that nothing is over. In order to qualify, we need to go Riga to win that game. We know that we have the advantage, but as I said to the players, we wont go thinking about that. We are going to Riga to win the game. We respect to VEF Riga's team, they have so many good experience and young players but our purpose to win the game in Riga next week."

FRANCO, DANNY

Maccabi Haifa Bazan

"Congratulations to Banvit. They are great team; one of the best teams in the Eurocup. Still they couldn’t qualify yet in this group because they lost against Tallinn. We were in the same situation there, but we won the game in the end. But it can happen. We had some injuries today, although we came here to win the game. I'm proud the way of my players fought. We can play a lot better, but even though we miss a lot of important players, we came to play the fourth quarter and finish the game without our hands up."

Players

MEJIA, SAMMY

Banvit Bandirma

"I think today is a very important win for us. Most importantly I think we are in a good moment and we showed we can beat any team; we are going into very important game in the Turkish League this weekend and we play against Riga next week which is very important."

YIVZORI, DAGAN

Maccabi Haifa Bazan

"Before we came here we knew that the game would be though. And we came here missing some important players. We wanted to win, but we were not able to. It’s very hard to win here even with a full roster. Banvit played a great game and made a very big percentage from every range in the paint, free throws, and threes. We didn't find a solution in defense and couldn't score more than them."